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Piranhas and Mosquitoes Fed on Me"

I Fed on on Alligators and Piranhas and Mosquitoes Fed on Me

24 Feb
2002Can you imagine a city with half a million people
in the deep jungle, unconnected to the outside world except by air
and slow river boat ? I am now in Iquitos, one of the largest
cities in Peru, yet more closely linked with other isolated
communities in the hot humid basin of the Amazon, the world's
most voluminous river.

The Amazon River, from the sky.

I flew in on a TANS flight (sounds like Tan's Airline, isn't it ?
Hey man, my own airline) five days ago and have just returned from a
three-day trip to the jungle, as evidenced by the more than 40
mosquito bites on each of my arm, 30 bites on each leg and countless
on my shoulders. I must suppose that I am sweet, or otherwise
Amazonian bugs would not cry out for more. Pray for me that none of
them carry the malarial virus, for although I had taken the yellow
fever vaccination, I did not have the patience for two months of
pre-visit intake of malarial pills. I have seen mosquito 5cm in size
– thank goodness I haven't met those twice as large, only found in
the deepest reaches of the jungle. The latter not only bite you, but
lay two dozen eggs in the wound. Just watch the little maggots grow
in your wound... what a wonderful pre-lunch tale!

And of course, some of my dear friends from Singapore would be
wondering why I paid so much to get to the jungle. Didn't Wee-Cheng
have enough mosquito bites during his army days ? Perhaps you are
right! Well, maybe I just need a bit of reminder that my Reservist
obligations await me when I get home.

Iquitos is a strange little place. A large city with a small-town
feel. It is part of Peru and yet in the hot tropical jungle. A local
told me, this is not Peru, it is the Amazon.

No wonder the large military garrison here holds a massive parade
every Sunday to remind locals who they are. I have just watched one
from a ice balcony facing the central square, while having English
tea in a restaurant run by the British Honorary Consul in the Iron
House, an iron-plated building designed by Eiffel (who built Paris'
Eiffel Tower) a hundred years ago and shipped piece-by-piece up the
Amazon to this town.

Those were the days of the Great Rubber Boom, which turned this
town and others (such as Manaus in the Brazilian Amazon) along the
Amazon River briefly into the world's richest towns. Grand old
mansions were built here, and professional opera performances
traveled upriver to entertain the rubber barons. This lasted until
the Rubber Boom shifted to British Malaya, after a sneaky British
agent smuggled rubber seeds to Malaya. This freak event in history
is somewhat related to me – it is one reason for the Chinese
emigration that changed the demographic landscape of Malaysia and
Singapore, and one of the reasons why my family landed up in
Singapore.

Despite the remoteness, Iquitos has a large Chinese community,
and many Peruvians here have partial Chinese ancestry. Many have
mixed Chinese, Native Indian and Peruvian blood. Many Chinese moved
here during the Great Rubber Boom to work on the plantations. After
the bust of the boom, many of the Chinese then settled here and
married local Indian tribes. I met so many Peruvians who say they
have Chinese great-great-grandfathers, including my jungle guide,
Roberto Tang, who doesn't look Chinese at all – the result of being
4th generation Chinese – only 25% Chinese but retaining a Chinese
surname. He looks more Indian and Latino, although he says his
grandfather is almost completely Chinese in looks. Roberto says
there are some villages where local Chinese settled down and
interbred just among themselves, as a result of which everyone in
those villages look Chinese although they all have Catholic first
names (many changed their surname to "Flores" so as to facilitate
naturalization) and speak only Spanish and Indian languages! It is
so strange to find our "lost cousins" in the middle of the deep
Amazon jungle. Maybe someone should do serious research about this
and write about them.

The Amazon is the largest expense of
tropical rain forest in the world. It is often known as the Lungs of
the World, as one-sixth of Earth's oxygen originates here. It is
also an area of diverse wildlife and plant-life. The continued
destruction of this jungle and its wildlife threatens the survival
of mankind, and the eco-diversity of this planet.

Sunset over the Amazon.

Many areas along the river are crowded with farming villages, and
they say they no longer have as rich a wildlife as it used to be
just a few decades ago. My guide still remembers the days when any
casual observer would see alligators and anaconda along the banks.
These days one has to trek into deeper jungles and tributaries just
to see a few surviving ones. He jokingly reckoned that within 10
years, he would be out of a job because there would be nothing to
see.

Even then, during those few days in the jungle, I did manage to
see and learn about the amazing wildlife in these parts. Forget
about the alligator and the pink dolphin. The former doesn't hold
much of an attraction for me apart, from the fact that they taste
quite good – tender and fatless, probably quite a healthy diet too!

The pink dolphin looks cute but since they are protected, they
are meaningless to a Chinese gourmet like me! Just joking! Do you
remember those movies on those cute little fishes called the
piranhas, that attack young couples frolicking in the water thinking
that nobody is looking at them, or jump out suddenly from the water
to attack innocent passersby? Though small in size, these fishes are
often shown attacking large animals and humans in packs, tearing
apart much greater creatures in mere minutes.

In real life, as our jungle guide assured us, they are much
friendlier than that. They only attack you if you bleed. We were
asked if we wanted a swim with the piranhas. Interesting idea, but I
don't fancy letting the fishes finding out where little cuts I may
have but not be conscious of.

One must also mention another friendly fish in the Amazon, the
caneros. They are tiny creatures, some of which are not visible to
the human eye; the largest ones are only 5 cm (2 inches) long. They
get turned on by human urine, then attempt in groups to enter that
human body, either through cuts, ears or human organs (for example,
the anus or even the little willy). Once inside, they do a wonderful
job of eating one from the inside out. Just imagine the wonderful
feeling of having dozens of little fishes, some smaller than little
bugs, eating your flesh from within! Time for dinner?

Oh yes, I did try the piranhas, grilled with some salt. They are
tasteless and extremely bony. If they do not kill you while alive,
they might just choke you to death as well! Not all fishes are
man-eaters. Some are extremely tasty; for instance, the paiche is a
tasty creature often found in local restaurants. They can grow up to
2.5 meters, and are fruit eaters. They do cause some deaths though,
such as when local fishermen drown while attempting to catch these
gigantic fishes and the canoe gets overturned as a result.

A capribara is about the size of a large pig, but
doens't cook up nearly as tasty.

Iquitos is a great place for the
gastronomically adventurous. Apart from the pretty much chokable
piranhas and really tasty alligators and paiche, you can scout
around in the local food markets for anaconda (one of the world's
longest and most formidable snakes), monkeys (I heard the locals say
they are tasty, but probably too human-like for me), jungle turtle,
deer, jungle cat, capribara (the world's largest rodents, i.e.,
rats, as large as a pig but not very tasty), protein-rich ants (good
when deep fried) and wobbly beetle larva (deep fried too – saw them
in the market, fairly disgusting when alive). Don't ask me how they
taste. I haven't tried that many.

Of course many of them, such as the anaconda, have the ability to
make you their dinner, rather the other way round. Just watch the
movie Anaconda, although most of the time it's humans who are
more dangerous. As for the ants, if you are not careful with
Amazonian ants their bites can often kill, not because they are
poisonous, but rather they cause so much sudden and intense pain
that the victims often die from an instant heart attack.

The jungle aside, Iquitos has friendly
people and is a laid-back town to hang around in, although I hate
the noisy scooters that plague this city.

Belen Market in Iquitos.

Last night there was a performance in the main square. The
Catholic Church has set up a huge platform in the square to
celebrate 100 years of the Vicarage of Iquitos. Local Latino youths
dressed up as Native Indians (or should I say "dressed down"), and
attempted their interpretation of local dance (the result is pretty
Hawaiian). Then they carried around a symbol of the devil to signify
what they see as evil non-Christian religions, followed by a
triumphant cross that signifies the conversion of local peoples to
Christianity. The devil was defeated, and local Indians were
depicted as happy and liberated under the cross.

Well, such an interpretation would have been seen as politically
incorrect in many parts of the world. Personally, no other forces in
the world have caused more destruction of indigenous cultures and
religions as Christianity and its cousin, Islam. Colonial powers
might have overwhelmed local independence and political powers, but
it was the zealous clergy of the newly introduced religions like
Christianity that tried actively to destroy local cultures and
indoctrinate the conquered peoples with that of the conquerors. I
detest the loss of so much human knowledge and wisdom throughout the
ages. Sorry folks, just my two-cents worth.

Tomorrow I shall take a two hour flight on a Peruvian Air Force
seaplane (the sort of small plane that takes off and lands on water)
to Santa Rosa more than 100km down the Amazon River. This is
the easternmost outpost of Peru, in a tri-border region with
Colombia and Brazil. I will visit the Colombian city of
Leticia, capital of the Amazonian Department of Colombia, as
well as its twin city of Tabatinga, across the border in
Brazil.

The Colombian ceasefire was broken a few days ago – I actually
watched the Colombian President declaring war on the Marxist rebels
on Colombian TV – but the Amazonian region is so remote that the
civil war doesn't affect this town. After a few days there, I will
return to Iquitos, either via a 2½-day cargo boat journey along the
Amazon or a 10-hour speed boat that costs a lot more. Either way, it
might be subject to pirate attacks – there were two last year, but
the locals are cool about it. Leave it to Santa Maria, they say.
Besides, river journeys are a wonderful way of seeing life on the
Amazon.

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